soften up
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
make someone more receptive or less resistant
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
làm cho ai đó dễ tiếp thu hơn hoặc ít kháng cự
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: reduce the hardness of something
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The salesman tried to soften up the customer with a discount
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “soften up” mean?
make someone more receptive or less resistant Literally: reduce the hardness of something
Is “soften up” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.